| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Straight Deal by Owen Wister: Again, in 1909, it was not any European nation that returned to China
their share of the indemnity exacted in consequence of the Boxer
troubles; we alone returned our share to China--sixteen millions. It was
we who prevented levying a punitive indemnity on China. Read the whole
story; there is much more. We played the gentleman, Europe played the
bully. But Europe calls us "dollar chasers." That dear old Europe! Again,
if any conquering General on the continent of Europe ever behaved as
Grant did to Lee at Appomattox, his name has escaped me.
Again, and lastly--though I am not attempting to tell you here the whole
tale of our decencies: Whose hands came away cleanest from that Peace
Conference in Paris lately? What did we ask for ourselves? Everything we
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Timaeus by Plato: ceasing to give nourishment to the body they are carried along the veins in
all directions, no longer preserving the order of their natural courses,
but at war with themselves, because they receive no good from one another,
and are hostile to the abiding constitution of the body, which they corrupt
and dissolve. The oldest part of the flesh which is corrupted, being hard
to decompose, from long burning grows black, and from being everywhere
corroded becomes bitter, and is injurious to every part of the body which
is still uncorrupted. Sometimes, when the bitter element is refined away,
the black part assumes an acidity which takes the place of the bitterness;
at other times the bitterness being tinged with blood has a redder colour;
and this, when mixed with black, takes the hue of grass; and again, an
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: for their own hand, and inflamed with the usual jealousy against
corporations, the Germans are inspired with a sense of the
greatness of their affairs and interests. The thought of the money
sunk, the sight of these costly and beautiful plantations, menaced
yearly by the returning forest, and the responsibility of
administering with one hand so many conjunct fortunes, might well
nerve the manager of such a company for desperate and questionable
deeds. Upon this scale, commercial sharpness has an air of
patriotism; and I can imagine the man, so far from haggling over
the scourge for a few Solomon islanders, prepared to oppress rival
firms, overthrow inconvenient monarchs, and let loose the dogs of
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: can fancy how much I'm in the dark. Until you came out,
that way, this morning, you had, since the first hour I saw you,
scarce even made a reference to anything in your previous life.
You seemed so perfectly to accept the present." It was
extraordinary how my absolute conviction of his secret precocity
(or whatever I might call the poison of an influence that I
dared but half to phrase) made him, in spite of the faint
breath of his inward trouble, appear as accessible as an
older person--imposed him almost as an intellectual equal.
"I thought you wanted to go on as you are."
It struck me that at this he just faintly colored. He gave, at any rate,
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